Jewish Theological College, Vienna: Archives

Between 1893 and 1938, the Israelitisch-Theologische Lehranstalt (Jewish Theological School) in Vienna served to train rabbis, religious teachers and to cultivate the science of Judaism. It was licensed by the state and received modest state funding. In the 45 years of its existence, the college had 324 male students; women were not admitted. The college was constantly in the grip of anti-Semitism in Austria; it was closed and dissolved after the annexation of Austria in 1938.

In 1860 Rabbi Adolf Jellinek founded a Beth Ha-Midrash (House of Learning) in Vienna. It was under the direction of the lecturers Meir Friedmann and Isaak Hirsch Weiss and was intended to serve the education of rabbinate candidates who were simultaneously studying philology at the University of Vienna. Since the institute was inadequately funded, it could not offer a full educational program. Some of the lectures were also open to the public. The proposal to found the Israelitisch-Theologische Lehranstalt came from within Viennese Jewry from Rabbi Moritz Güdemann, from the entrepreneurs Wilhelm von Gutmann and David von Gutmann, and was supported by the bankers Albert von Rothschild and Moritz von Königswarter. Further support came from scholars such as Adolf Jellinek, Joshua Heschel Schorr and Abraham Epstein. The college was supported by the Jewish religious communities from Vienna, Prague and Lemberg and by the Landjudenschaft Böhmen from the Austrian part of Austria-Hungary. A modest subsidy came from the state, with Emperor Franz Joseph noting with satisfaction that students would now no longer have to go abroad. The organization of the college was modeled on that of the Jewish Theological Seminary in Breslau, founded in 1854. The school was presided over by a board of fifteen trustees, led by a president. The first presidents of the college were the banker Moritz von Königswarter, after his death the entrepreneur Moritz Karpeles, and then the brewer Moritz Edler von Kuffner. The seat of the college was in Vienna at Tempelgasse 3. It was founded on October 15, 1893.

Its mission was threefold: training of rabbis and preachers; training of teachers of religion; cultivation of the science of Judaism The financial crisis of the post WWI period could only be partially overcome by the Viennese Chief Rabbi Zwi Perez Chajes by appealing to philanthropists in the USA. The college was banned in 1938.

Donor: CAHJP